Microsoft Discontinues Essential Business Server

And you know what? The thing was just crazy complex, so this makes sense to me. From Microsoft:

Today Microsoft announced the decision to streamline their server product portfolio and discontinue future development of Windows Essential Business Server (EBS), effective June 30, 2010. This decision represents a natural market shift in midsize business preference toward creating their own IT solutions.

Microsoft remains fully committed to small and medium-sized businesses. EBS customers can look forward to continued support and options for continuing with EBS or transitioning to other technologies. This change does not impact any other Windows Server products and solutions, including the next version of Windows Small Business Server (SBS).

For more information, please visit the Windows Essential Business Server team blog. Here, we learn...

Several changes have occurred that drove our decision to streamline our server product portfolio. First, midsize businesses are rapidly turning to technologies such as management, virtualization and cloud computing as a means to cut costs, improve efficiency, and increase competitiveness. Those capabilities are already available through other offerings, including Windows Server 2008 R2, Microsoft System Center and the Microsoft Business Productivity Online Suite (BPOS).

Secondly, Microsoft remains fully committed to small and medium-sized businesses. We recognize that ending future editions of EBS could result in additional cost and complexity for our EBS customers. Therefore, we are going to provide a limited offer for all EBS 2008 customers. Beginning on June 30, 2010 through December 31, 2010, current EBS 2008 customers can get the individual component software from the EBS 2008 suite for free (local taxes, shipping and handling charges may apply). To learn more about this offer, EBS customers can visithttp://www.microsoft.com/ebs.

Discuss this Article 2

" The thing was just crazy complex, so this makes sense to me."
Huh?
It's a modular infrastructure suite with a slick management console that costs less than the individual components added up. How is that complicated?
You've been "journalizing" too much lately....
What makes senses is this part:
"midsize businesses are rapidly turning to technologies such as management, virtualization and cloud computing as a means to cut costs, improve efficiency, and increase competitiveness"
translation: "We didn't market this product well, so nobody really understood it, or even knew about it. Instead, they bought our more expensive options, so we couldn't justify future R&D and support of this product with such low sales figures."
Ya, that's a harsh response, but it's true. The product was good, and was a very good value for mid-sized businesses. It was a new product though, and mid-sized businesses that were built on existing Microsoft infrastructures already had the individual products, so they thought they would see a lot of migration pains in trying to fit into the confining space of a solution-based infrastructure. Then you have the recession, which saw many mid-sized businesses either expand into the enterprise space, or fold up. Small businesses likewise folded, but Small Business Server already had a well-established market base to build from.
I've been going over the cost of cloud solutions lately. BPOS and the brand new System Center remote management stuff looks interesting, but on-premises stuff is still cheaper, even when you look at management costs. It's a fact that many customers of SBS will only ever purchase every-other version, not every version that's available. The same can be said of larger companies running Win Server 03 R1 and skipping all of the interim versions and are only now considering upgrades to Server 08 R2. When you pay a premium on continual upgrades to cloud services, the ROI gets lower because the platform isn't stable. If you could even rate it with a TCO, the cost would be unlimited because you'll never own it. Since you're continually paying, it's just not worth it.

http://www.engadget.com/2010/03/05/microsofts-courier-digital-journal-ex...
Hey Paul, how about another 'Look-Microsoft-released-rendered-mockups-and-some-pictures-about-another-product-that-will-not-be-released-anytime-soon-but-will-keep-Microsoftapologists-believing-Microsoft-is-about-innovation'
This is absolutely laughable! Apple has an iPad coming out in four weeks and what does Microsoft do to keep it apologists happy? Mockups.
So overtly sad.

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